Scary Movies

[archerships]

As a kid, I couldn't watch scary movies--I still remember getting freaked out by a scene from Outland, in which an alien tentacle crushes a man's leg. *Shudder*



However, as an adult, only a few movies are capable of sending a shiver down my spine...Psycho, The Shining, Crossroads. I think The Ring, which I saw last night, may qualify for the list.

What makes these movies scary to me? Here's some commonalities I've noticed:

a. A scene in which an apparently "normal" human is revealed to be a decaying corpse.
b. Madness/mental illness.
c. Old architecture with a bad history.
d. Murderous loved ones.
e. Isolation.
f. Quick, almost stroboscopic flashes of horrific scenes.
g. Children who're able to see/speak to ghosts or demons.

What scares you? What movies do you find scary?

Comments

[drstevechaos.livejournal.com]

Deterrence (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0158583)
Basically, Iraq was sold ICBMs by France and threatened to launch. The president, in response decided to launch a preemptive nuclear strike.
All in all basically it amounts to the tension ratcheting up to WW3 - basically if the Stealth Bombers cross Iraqi airspace, the ICBMs launch. One person gets so desperate to avoid nuclear holocaust that they attempt to kill the guy with the nuclear football.
Kind of like a Dr. Strangelove for the 90's - only without 10 women for every man.
*shrug*
I found it pretty chilling, probably because at the time I could actually see it happening.

[perich.livejournal.com]

Not a very good job at the lj-cut.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Oops, sorry, forgot a quote mark. Fixed now.

[carrie.livejournal.com]

I think the only kinds of movies that really scare me are the ones with people-who-seem-normal-but-are-really-quite-crazy, things I really shouldn't watch when I'm home alone.... Sleeping With the Enemy and Hand That Rocks The Cradle come to mind. Dead Again is the only movie that's ever made me scream in the theater. So I guess on your list I'd choose b and/or d.

[squamous.livejournal.com]

Haven't thought a lot about common elements here but some movies that scare me are The Exorcist, The Shining (the Kubrick one, not the Sci Fi channel thing), and the original Evil Dead. "Killer Bob" from Twin Peaks actually gave me nightmares. Poltergeist scared me but I have not watched it in awhile and don't know how it has held up for me.

I think the idea of possession and 'evil spirits' freak me out - the thought of some powerful supernatural force that is out to do you harm. There are other horror movies that I really like without finding scary, like The Thing or Carnival of Souls.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, how could I forget Poltergeist. The scene with the tree and the evil clown, plus the "dream sequence" in which the psi researcher rips his face off gave me the willies. Evil Dead struck me more as a comedy than as horror--I should've seen it before Army of Darkness, I guess. I liked The Thing as well. I haven't seen Carnival of Souls yet.

That reminds me of another one--Something Wicked This Way Comes. Quite frightening, especially for a Disney production.

My name is Mike, his name is Bob

[cerulgalactus.livejournal.com]

Im glad to see Im not the only one who got scared to bejebus by Killer Bob...........even now, the scene with him crouched at the end of Laura's bed send shivers down my spine.

[sirdiesel.livejournal.com]

The last 10 minutes of the Ring were a pretty big bugout. I saw it in a theater on campus, meaning the theater was filled with wiseass college students. Up until the last 10 minutes, most "scary" scenes in the movie were met with more laughter than screams, but the last 10 minutes...damn.

[kimber.livejournal.com]

I really try not to watch scary movies, cause I can't get them out of my head afterwards and I have way too active of an imagination at night to have stuff like that running around my head. But of the ones I have seen, I think one of the things that freaks me out the most is when they take something that should be harmless/nice/innocent and make it into something horrible. Dolls that kill, possessed teddy bears, that sort of thing. I will never, ever have one of those clown dolls in my house after having watched Poltragist when I was little.

I also HATE when they leave things open ended at the end. I want to know the psychopath is dead, the evil vanquished, etc. No endings where it's obvious that it'll be back...

[mudchild.livejournal.com]

Not much scares me. I'm always looking for a really scary movie.

The thing about The Ring, although it had some good moments, was -- what if you don't have a phone? Do you still get fair warning?

In the Mouth of Madness scared me, but that was a long time ago. So did Event Horizon. The first 20 minutes of IT was good, too. Poltergeist is a great american classic. talk about one of the best made horror movies ever made.

I liked the Signs scene where the Aliens are getting in. And the Mothman Prophecies was really pretty spooky because it is based on things people really reported. And it offers no explanation.

But once, just once, I'd like to see a movie so scary that I am afraid to go to the bathroom alone. Its just that my own dreams are usually much scarier than what anyone has managed to put on film so far . . .

[almond-tiger.livejournal.com]

Once when channel surfing (when I was semi young) I found some tv show where a woman was trying to find out why a cat was meowing at the window. She picked up the perfectly normal cat, turns it towards her, and!... the cat's face is all just a skull!

Not a lot in movies really scares me, but I doubt I'll ever forget that.